The Outer Banks Voice – USACE reinstates another suspended Miss Katie screening permit

With Mark Jurkowitz | Voice of the Outer Banks On November 19, 2024

Miss Katie. (Credit: Dare County)

by Mark Jurkowitz | Voice of the Outer Banks

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Dare County have confirmed that the second Miss Katie dredging permit, which was suspended due to “non-compliance”, has now been reinstated.

The second permit suspension to allow dredging in the Oregon Inlet and Ocean Bar Channel was lifted Nov. 1, according to USACE Public Affairs Specialist Jed Cayton. According to USACE, the initial permit was lifted on Oct. 18 to facilitate dredging at Walter’s Slough and The Crack.

In its Sept. 18 statement announcing the permit suspension, USACE stated that it had “suspended Dare County’s permits allowing work on federal and non-federal canals in the Oregon and Hatteras Inlet complexes due to a third recorded non-compliance.” Dare County and USACE officials met Sept. 25 to begin the process of restoring suspended permits.

Owned by EJE Dredging, Miss Katie arrived in Dare County in August 2022 and was built with $15 million in funding from the state under a public-private partnership and a forgivable loan agreement. One of EJE’s top officials is Jordan Hennessy, who has become a prominent and controversial figure in Dare County. A former top aide to then-State Sen. Bill Cook, he was a member of the Coastal Resources Commission and a director of Coastal Affordable Housing LLC, one of Dare County’s affordable housing partners, until the county terminated that relationship earlier this year much.